04-23-2024  12:53 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather
  • Cloud 9 Cannabis CEO and co-owner Sam Ward Jr., left, and co-owner Dennis Turner pose at their shop, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, in Arlington, Wash. Cloud 9 is one of the first dispensaries to open under the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board's social equity program, established in efforts to remedy some of the disproportionate effects marijuana prohibition had on communities of color. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

    The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

    A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting.  Read More
  • Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

    Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

     Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color Read More
  • A woman gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up in San Francisco, Aug. 29, 2023. The Supreme Court will hear its most significant case on homelessness in decades Monday, April 22, 2024, as record numbers of people in America are without a permanent place to live. The justices will consider a challenge to rulings from a California-based federal appeals court that found punishing people for sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

    Supreme Court to Weigh Bans on Sleeping Outdoors 

    The Supreme Court will consider whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment on Monday. The case is considered the most significant to come before the high court in decades on homelessness, which is reaching record levels In California and other Western states. Courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to fine and arrest people sleeping in homeless encampments if shelter Read More
  • Richard Wallace, founder and director of Equity and Transformation, poses for a portrait at the Westside Justice Center, Friday, March 29, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

    Chicago's Response to Migrant Influx Stirs Longstanding Frustrations Among Black Residents

    With help from state and federal funds, the city has spent more than $300 million to provide housing, health care and more to over 38,000 mostly South American migrants. The speed with which these funds were marshaled has stirred widespread resentment among Black Chicagoans. But community leaders are trying to ease racial tensions and channel the public’s frustrations into agitating for the greater good. Read More
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NORTHWEST NEWS

The Drug War Devastated Black and Other Minority Communities. Is Marijuana Legalization Helping?

A major argument for legalizing the adult use of cannabis after 75 years of prohibition was to stop the harm caused by disproportionate enforcement of drug laws in Black, Latino and other minority communities. But efforts to help those most affected participate in the newly legal sector have been halting. 

Lessons for Cities from Seattle’s Racial and Social Justice Law 

 Seattle is marking the first anniversary of its landmark Race and Social Justice Initiative ordinance. Signed into law in April 2023, the ordinance highlights race and racism because of the pervasive inequities experienced by people of color

Don’t Shoot Portland, University of Oregon Team Up for Black Narratives, Memory

The yearly Memory Work for Black Lives Plenary shows the power of preservation.

Grants Pass Anti-Camping Laws Head to Supreme Court

Grants Pass in southern Oregon has become the unlikely face of the nation’s homelessness crisis as its case over anti-camping laws goes to the U.S. Supreme Court scheduled for April 22. The case has broad implications for cities, including whether they can fine or jail people for camping in public. Since 2020, court orders have barred Grants Pass from enforcing its anti-camping laws. Now, the city is asking the justices to review lower court rulings it says has prevented it from addressing the city's homelessness crisis. Rights groups say people shouldn’t be punished for lacking housing.

NEWS BRIEFS

Mt. Tabor Park Selected for National Initiative

Mt. Tabor Park is the only Oregon park and one of just 24 nationally to receive honor. ...

OHCS, BuildUp Oregon Launch Program to Expand Early Childhood Education Access Statewide

Funds include million for developing early care and education facilities co-located with affordable housing. ...

Governor Kotek Announces Chief of Staff, New Office Leadership

Governor expands executive team and names new Housing and Homelessness Initiative Director ...

Governor Kotek Announces Investment in New CHIPS Child Care Fund

5 Million dollars from Oregon CHIPS Act to be allocated to new Child Care Fund ...

Bank Announces 14th Annual “I Got Bank” Contest for Youth in Celebration of National Financial Literacy Month

The nation’s largest Black-owned bank will choose ten winners and award each a $1,000 savings account ...

Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They're banning the book ban

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed when she heard that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and helped persuade their school board to make it...

US advances review of Nevada lithium mine amid concerns over endangered wildflower

RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Biden administration has taken a significant step in its expedited environmental review of what could become the third lithium mine in the U.S., amid anticipated legal challenges from conservationists over the threat they say it poses to an endangered Nevada wildflower. ...

KC Current owners announce plans for stadium district along the Kansas City riverfront

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The ownership group of the Kansas City Current announced plans Monday for the development of the Missouri River waterfront, where the club recently opened a purpose-built stadium for the National Women's Soccer League team. CPKC Stadium will serve as the hub...

Two-time world champ J’den Cox retires at US Olympic wrestling trials; 44-year-old reaches finals

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — J’den Cox walked off the mat after dropping a 2-2 decision to Kollin Moore at the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials on Friday night, leaving his shoes behind to a standing ovation. The bronze medal winner at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016 was beaten by...

OPINION

Op-Ed: Why MAGA Policies Are Detrimental to Black Communities

NNPA NEWSWIRE – MAGA proponents peddle baseless claims of widespread voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics that disproportionately target Black voters. From restrictive voter ID laws to purging voter rolls to limiting early voting hours, these...

Loving and Embracing the Differences in Our Youngest Learners

Yet our responsibility to all parents and society at large means we must do more to share insights, especially with underserved and under-resourced communities. ...

Gallup Finds Black Generational Divide on Affirmative Action

Each spring, many aspiring students and their families begin receiving college acceptance letters and offers of financial aid packages. This year’s college decisions will add yet another consideration: the effects of a 2023 Supreme Court, 6-3 ruling that...

OP-ED: Embracing Black Men’s Voices: Rebuilding Trust and Unity in the Democratic Party

The decision of many Black men to disengage from the Democratic Party is rooted in a complex interplay of historical disenchantment, unmet promises, and a sense of disillusionment with the political establishment. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Mississippi lawmakers move toward restoring voting rights to 32 felons as broader suffrage bill dies

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators advanced bills Monday to give voting rights back to 32 people convicted of felonies, weeks after a Senate leader killed a broader bill that would have restored suffrage to many more people with criminal records. The move is necessary due...

With graduation near, colleges seek to balance safety and students' right to protest Gaza war

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The University of Michigan is informing students of the rules for upcoming graduation ceremonies: Banners and flags are not allowed. Protests are OK but in designated areas away from the cap-and-gown festivities. The University of Southern California canceled...

Minnesota and other Democratic-led states lead pushback on censorship. They're banning the book ban

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — As a queer and out youth, Shae Ross was alarmed when she heard that conservative groups were organizing in her community to ban books dealing with sexuality, gender and race. So she and her friends got organized themselves, and helped persuade their school board to make it...

ENTERTAINMENT

What to stream this weekend: Conan O’Brien travels, 'Migration' soars and Taylor Swift reigns

Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver” landing on Netflix and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” album are some of the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as...

Music Review: Jazz pianist Fred Hersch creates subdued, lovely colors on 'Silent, Listening'

Jazz pianist Fred Hersch fully embraces the freedom that comes with improvisation on his solo album “Silent, Listening,” spontaneously composing and performing tunes that are often without melody, meter or form. Listening to them can be challenging and rewarding. The many-time...

Book Review: 'Nothing But the Bones' is a compelling noir novel at a breakneck pace

Nelson “Nails” McKenna isn’t very bright, stumbles over his words and often says what he’s thinking without realizing it. We first meet him as a boy reading a superhero comic on the banks of a river in his backcountry hometown in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Georgia....

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

What to know about the Supreme Court case about immunity for former President Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has scheduled a special session to hear arguments over whether former...

Global plastic pollution treaty talks hit critical stage in Canada

Thousands of negotiators and observers representing most of the world’s nations are gathering in the Canadian...

With graduation near, colleges seek to balance safety and students' right to protest Gaza war

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The University of Michigan is informing students of the rules for upcoming graduation...

North Korean leader Kim leads rocket drills that simulate a nuclear counterattack against enemies

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised salvo launches of the country’s...

Aid approval brings Ukraine closer to replenishing troops struggling to hold front lines

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian commander Oleksiy Tarasenko witnessed a frightening shift last month in Russia's...

Israel's military intelligence chief resigns over failure to prevent Hamas attack on Oct. 7

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The head of Israeli military intelligence resigned on Monday because of Hamas' Oct. 7...

Nina Martin Propublica

For nearly 40 years, the University of Tennessee's Lady Vols were a role model for college athletics — everybody's favorite example of what is possible when a major university devotes major resources to women's sports. No one embodied that promise more than Pat Summitt, the legendary basketball coach who helped elevate UT's entire women's sports program into something approaching a Title IX utopian fantasy.

"It was a fabulous place to work," said Jenny Moshak, the one-time head of women's sports medicine at UT. "It was a place that celebrated the student-athlete and the promotion of women as a whole. It was easy to give heart and soul because you felt like you were making a difference. Many, many people would say, 'The women's athletic department does it right.' They couldn't say that about the men's department."

Little did she know.

Summitt retired at the end of the 2012 season, her 38-year career abruptly ended by early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Moshak is gone, too — demoted and marginalized, she claims, for resisting UT's efforts to bring the women's sports program under male leadership. After 24 years at UT, she quit this August.

Pride over the Lady Vols' achievements has been wounded by two lawsuits alleging that Moshak and her colleagues had to work harder than their men's counterparts, under worse conditions, for less money and fewer benefits, and then were punished when they dared to complain. The suits mostly faded from view after causing a stir when they were filed a year ago, but based on new filings and exhibits, some sex discrimination lawyers believe they will become a model – and a test—for similar cases nationwide.

"There's massive sex discrimination in college sports," said Kristen Galles, a Northern Virginia attorney and Title IX specialist who has been following the UT situation closely. "Here, you're seeing, all at one point in time, what has been happening at other programs more gradually."

Usually, she said, "discriminatory decisions are made one at a time," over an extended period, so the pattern may not be apparent. But because of how the process has gone at UT, "it's all so obvious. It's a window into the discriminatory decision-making that happens every day in college athletics. And the fact that it's happening at a school like this really highlights the extent to which discrimination is a problem everywhere."

In its responses to the lawsuits, filed in federal court in Knoxville, UT contends that it had "legitimate, nondiscriminatory and non-retaliatory reasons" for the actions it has taken, against the individual plaintiffs and more broadly in its consolidation of the men's and women's athletic programs.

As the Lady Vols basketball season begins this week, the University of Tennessee, once one of Title IX's proudest success stories, has become an angry and more complicated tale.

To understand why gender-equity advocates see the UT case as emblematic of larger problems in women's sports, some background is in order. UT has a long history in women's athletics, especially in basketball; the first Lady Vols intercollegiate game took place in 1903. By the mid-1920s, though, according to the former women's sports information director, Debby Jennings, the game was no longer considered to be in the "best interest" of its players, and the team was disbanded, not to be revived for another four decades.

The 1970s marked a turning point for the Lady Vols and for women's sports in general. First came Title IX, the 1972 civil rights law that broke down barriers in education — including athletics — for women and girls. Two years after that, Summitt took over the UT women's basketball program — a job that paid $250 a month and (legend has it) involved not just coaching but washing the players' uniforms and driving the team van. By the time she retired, she had cracked the $1 million salary ceiling, collected eight NCAA championships, and won more games than any basketball coach — male or female — in college history. Summitt's teams also had a 100 percent graduation rate — a record few men's programs, UT's included, could come close to matching.

The Lady Vols are a special case, of course. But Title IX's broader impact on college athletics has been truly remarkable. In 1970, 16,000 women participated in intercollegiate sports; in 2012, the number was 200,000. In 1970, U.S. colleges had an average of 2.5 women's varsity sports teams; last year, the average was 8.73 teams. Evidence of the law's transformative effects could be seen at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where, for the first time, women made up more than half the U.S. team and took home the majority of its medals, including almost two-thirds of its gold medals.

Yet these gains have also had an unexpected consequence, making women's sports more attractive to male coaches. The result is that as the number of female athletes has exploded, the proportion of female head coaches has steadily shrunk. In 1977, nine out of 10 women's collegiate teams were coached by women. Last year, the figure was closer to four in 10, according to R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, emerita professors from Brooklyn College who have been publishing their Women in Intercollegiate Sport study for 35 years. (Meanwhile, some 97 percent of men's teams still have male coaches.)

The decline has been less dramatic at colleges and universities with female athletic directors, Acosta and Carpenter report. But in 2012, only one in five athletic directors were women — even fewer at high-profile, Division 1 schools. Some 9 percent of athletic departments had no female administrators whatsoever.

UT was one of the rare places that seemed to have bucked those trends, in part because of its old-fashioned organizational structure. Whereas most other major universities had long since merged their sports operations, at UT, the men's and women's departments remained almost completely separate: The Lady Vols had their own athletic director (Joan Cronan, herself a former UT basketball coach and almost as beloved as Summitt), training facilities, public relations people, and sports medicine staff, and the men had theirs.

"We had the ability to structure our staff and develop our programs as we saw fit," Moshak said. In her case, the programs included Team ENHANCE, a pioneering initiative to help female students cope with eating disorders and emotional issues that has been widely copied — including by UT's men's teams. "We could bring our vision to fruition and do amazing things," she said.

This is not to say that separate ever really meant equal. As is true at many major universities, UT's men's programs, especially football, were seen as special; they brought in more money and media attention and received a far bigger share of the resources. According to an annual report to the U.S. Department of Education, UT had nearly the same number of male and female varsity athletes last year. But it spent more than four times as much to recruit male athletes and nearly twice as much on the men's department's operating budget. Still, "if you are going to be unequal regardless, at least [with separate programs] you were controlling your own fate," said Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tuck Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. "At least you had a building and a salary and people who were deeply committed to advancing and promoting women's sports."

Then, in 2009, UT announced plans to revamp its athletics program to reflect how almost all other NCAA Division 1 universities were organized. The men's and women's departments would be merged to make the entire program more "efficient and effective."

For Moshak and her colleagues, the Golden Era was over.

As part of the process, UT began evaluating job responsibilities and salaries. For the first time, the women's side was able to get access to the men's pay data — and the comparisons left them deeply dismayed.

Debby Jennings, for instance, whose work as the longtime women's sports information director had earned her a national reputation, discovered that her base salary was $4,000 lower than that of her men's counterpart even though she had a list of accomplishments and awards that went on for pages. Moshak and her colleagues on the women's strength and conditioning staff, Holly Mason and Collin Schlosser, found not only that they were paid less than men's trainers — in Mason's case, some $100,000 less than her football counterparts — but that the university had ignored its own personnel policies and had offered benefits to the men's side, such as employment contracts, not available to them.

"Football overwhelmingly is the top revenue-generating sport in athletics and the sport that generates the most fan interest," UT officials argued in response to a complaint Moshak and her colleagues filed with UT's Office of Equity and Diversity. "With no disrespect being intended to Ms. Moshak, [the director of men's sports medicine] is more important to athletics because of his football-related responsibilities." After a yearlong investigation, the office agreed that some aspects of the hiring and salary-setting process showed "inconsistencies" that should be corrected. But its January 2011 report rejected any claims of sex discrimination, holding that for the most part, the women's and men's job and salary comparisons weren't valid, and the university's chancellor declined to make any changes.

Meanwhile, to the women, the merger was starting to feel less like a consolidation than a hostile takeover. UT had hired a new athletic director, the University of Alabama's Dave Hart, to oversee the process. It was a process, the women now say, that effectively meant phasing out the Lady Vols' identity and logo and replacing it with the men's "Power T" brand. Hart has denied that this was ever his intention, but in a sworn affidavit, Summitt says that Hart admitted as much to her in person.

When Jennings, now one of the female plaintiffs taking on the university, protested that male students seemed to be getting special treatment and that media coverage for female athletes was suffering, she was "shunned for stating her opinions, ... for questioning the male leaders or their ideas, [and] for advocating Title IX equity issues," her lawsuit alleges. In court documents, Hart described her attitude as "negativity and insubordination." Jennings was also told not to apply for the job overseeing the merged media relations office because UT's then football coach "did not want to work with a female," her lawsuit says. The university denies this, but in court documents it does acknowledge hiring or promoting four men — all younger and with less experience — into supervisory roles over Jennings.

Moshak, meanwhile, says she was demoted, stripped of her supervisory responsibilities, and denied the opportunity to apply for the head training position that eventually went to her counterpart on the men's side, who came from the football program. Even Team ENHANCE ended up under male supervision.

The merger culminated with the layoff of 15 people — 12 women and three men — in April 2012. Schlosser, a male member of the women's conditioning staff, was one of them, prompting a heartfelt letter to Dave Hart from the coaches of the women's softball team: "We keep coming back to the same questions: 'Why would we let go of one of the best and brightest, not just in our athletic department, but within his entire profession? Why would we not do whatever it takes to find a way to keep one of our student-athletes' best resources?'"

After the dust had settled, the reconfigured executive staff of the athletic department consisted of seven men and a single woman, while the senior administrative staff was made up of 13 men and two women. The reorganization "effectively resulted in a mass demotion of females and staff working with female student-athletes," Moshak, Mason and Schlosser claimed. Where the old organizational structure had afforded them autonomy and opportunities for advancement, now the woman's staff faced what they called a "testosterone wall."

The lawsuits have also unearthed some recent history that the school might have wished stayed buried. Jennings, in her suit, says the Lady Vols' most revered icon, Summitt, was pushed out of her job against her will, and that Jennings paid a personal price for standing up for her hero – a set of accusations that were widely reported in local media outlets and in other sports publications and that briefly rekindled the furor over women's athletics at Tennessee.

When Summitt retired in April 2012, some 10 months after she learned she had Alzheimer's — and a few days after the layoffs — she and UT officials insisted that the decision was hers. But Jennings's lawsuit tells a different story.

According to Jennings — who worked alongside Summitt for 35 years and co-authored several books with her — Dave Hart told Summitt that she wouldn't be coaching the Lady Vols during the 2012-13 season. Summitt was "very upset and extremely hurt," Jennings says in her lawsuit, and she protested the decision in an email to Hart, calling it "discriminatory" and "wrong." A couple of months later, Jennings contends, she herself was forced out in retaliation.

In court documents filed last fall, Summitt corroborated Jennings's account. Hart's decision "was very surprising to me and very hurtful as that was a decision I would have liked to make on my own at the end of the season after consulting with my family, doctors, colleagues and friends," she wrote in a sworn affidavit. Summitt added that she and Hart had a later meeting where Hart said she had "misinterpreted" what he said. Then, after Jennings's lawsuit hit the news last fall, Summitt issued a new statement saying it was "entirely my decision to step down ... I did not then, and I do not now, feel that I was forced out by the university." Meanwhile, Hart reiterated to Sports Illustrated that Summitt's retirement was "Pat's decision from the get-go."

Kristin Galles, the Title IX attorney, says the allegations in the lawsuits mirror what she has heard from many of the female coaches she has represented over the years. The difference at UT, she says, is that the women sued. "That's very rare because you're blackballed," she said. "You're a troublemaker, you're a problem, and the men don't want that."

Indeed, Moshak and her colleagues say they see signs of blackballing in their case. Both she and Jennings have taken early retirement and are working as consultants. (Moshak is also promoting a new book, "Ice and Go: Score in Sports and Life.") Holly Mason, the associate strength coach, survived the layoffs but was fired this May. Schlosser remains unemployed.

Meanwhile, Holly Warlick, Summitt's longtime assistant, who led the Lady Vols to another Southeastern Conference title in her rookie year as head coach, earned $485,000 last year, versus $1.3 million for men's basketball coach Cuonzo Martin, hired the year before, whose team finished second in the conference last year.

Later this month, the Tuck Center's associate director, Nicole Lavoi, will release a new study and report card focusing on the number of female coaches in the top NCAA schools. According to Lavoi's data, UT's head coaching staff is now 38.5 percent female, below the national average.

The grade she gives to the once-lauded UT program: a D.

The Skanner Foundation's 38th Annual MLK Breakfast